Raging Courage
by Thinker90
Summary: When a UNSC destroyer is stranded near an unknown planet after the Fall of Reach, they have to survive threats from both the Covenant and the Pandora's Box that is the planet's moon. With time running out, will the crew remain strong or will their resilience shatter?
1. Raging Courage

Chapter 1: Reach…Over and Out

Part 1

_Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!_

— Virginia Woolf

September 6 2552/ Military Standard Calendar

The black of space wasn't really all that black. Though weak, starlight spread out in a faint hazy mist. It was quite beautiful to look at. During peacetimes. Now, Commander Eiji Rodriguez wished reality matched his name. The half Japanese and Fijian skipper of the destroyer _Torn Asunder _had just initiated passive scans after they had jumped in system. As per the Cole Protocol, they had made a blind slipspace jump and now had no idea where they were.

_Reach_. Home world of the military might of the UNSC. Well not anymore. Eiji still saw flashes of one of the greatest fleets ever mustered, being ripped to shreds by the Covenant. He still heard the panicked last seconds of the UNSC Minotaur on the highband, within the first hours of the battle. God rest their souls.

However many ships got destroyed, a few had got away. The cruiser Pillar of Autumn and the heavy frigate Into The Breach amoung others. The pain of the knowledge was almost too great to bear. Turning from the view ports, he addressed the ships 'dumb' A.I Chukov. The A.I looked dour dressed in the military uniform of the Russian tactical genius.

"Chukov, scans detected anything yet?"

"Scans are complete Commander. Our particular patch of space is quiet. Sensors do not detect any anomalies that would suggest any Covenant activity within 100,000 km of where we are situated." Rodriguez stifled a sigh of relief. Composure, at all times in front of the crew. It was about time they got a break. So far it had been a crap month.

Sure they had managed to vape 3 corvettes and a destroyer and were still alive. But that paled against the reminder that the aliens controlled Earth's doorstep. They had come out of the fight half dead. Their port side battle plate was the same as tissue paper for all the good it would do them. Two and a half metres of armour amid ship had been reduced to a metre thanks to a kamikaze run by a Seraph fighter. Normally it wouldn't have caused that much damage, but they had been grazed by a plasma torpedo prior to the attack. Thank whatever gods it hadn't been a direct hit.

Perched on his seat the commander brought up the ship status logs. Reading it he winced. The damage report read more like their epitaph with each line and data point. The marine complement had been hammered. Preliminary reports from the billets suggested heavy casualties, maybe even up to a third of the total force. That was without mentioning equipment losses. The number one M.A.C was offline while the second was maxed at fifty percent charge. They had had 800 Archers out of a complement of 2240. Half the launch tubes were slagged and the point defence cannons could possibly defend against a light swarm of Banshee interceptors but nothing more. His darling desperately needed repairs.

"Chukov, find the nearest planet and get us behind it. I want us covered. We've been hanging in the same spot for too long. I'd rather not have this ship be the covvies piñata. "

Turning to his XO he said "Contact engineering, they haven't updated the engine condition logs. If it's in the red we're screwed if we need to sprint."

Lieutenant-Commander Wallace Hemmingway replied "Yes sir. I'll have to ask manually. Intra-ship comms are down."

"Really? Another one bites the dust I suppose. We really need these repairs done ASAP. Alright, issue a general order to all personnel. We're to communicate using our data pads. They have an independent data link system. Have marines stationed at various points about the ship for relay." The XO turned and walked out of the bridge.

Addressing Lieutenant Kory Mbabane his Communications officer he said "Lieutenant how are our exterior comms. Please tell me they're ok. I need good news."

"Sir. Comms are good high band fluctuations within normal limits. Interference is minimal. We could hear a baby wail on earth sir."

"Good to hear. About the clarity. Not the baby." The Commander joked. He grimly returned to surveying the logs again. There was a faint ping as Chukov popped back in his holotank. "Sir scans show a gas giant approximately 380,000 km from current position. Deep scan shows that the planet is roughly twice the size of Jupiter with a similar atmosphere. It is orbited by 2 moons one of which is earth like."

"Earth-like eh? Navigation plot a course for the moon. I just got the engineering report, systems are green. The S-F drives are hot, and sublight engines are within tolerances. Commence full sublight burn."

* * *

In the midst of the journey, Kory Mbabane reflected on the ship she was serving on. It was one of five modified Harpy-class destroyers in existence. It had been built for the theoretical possibility of reinforcing or extracting troops in heavily controlled Covenant territory. The Harpy-class were formidable ship to ship fighters, sacrificing cargo capacity for more armour and an increased amount of weapons systems. Normally ships of the class like the Heart of Midlothian had no cargo capacity. On the surface the _Torn Asunder_ looked the same. She packed 2 M.A.C cannons. 32 oversized Archer missile pods, with one pod carrying 70 missiles and 16 point defence auto cannons. The destroyer had one major difference. It had small cargo hold with a complement of Marines and vehicles, to better support its role.

When the ships were commissioned the Admiralty had no idea how to classify the ship. Was it a super heavy frigate? Or was it heavy destroyer? Finally it came down to the armour. With 2.5 metres of Titanium-A it was a destroyer. When Kory had been informed 2 months prior to the Battle of reach, of where she had been posted and what she was posted to and the purpose of the warship, she had laughed. Kory knew she would die on the ship. They had all come close to death. Only the moments of brilliance by the Commander, reminiscent of a young Preston Cole had kept them from sucking vacuum. Nevertheless, she was proud to serve on the ship now. The shared trial having strengthened the bonds between the members of the crew immeasurably. They all mourned the fall of Reach. And they all swore: _they would go back!_

Part 2:

The Commander looked up from his pad as the destination proximity alert rang out. He closed the ration report he was reading and stood up. Glancing through the view port he took note of the satellite they were arriving at. The moon was about one and a half times the size of earth. The moon had a predominantly green belt in the equatorial regions suggesting earth like weather patters. Water content seemed to be comparable to that of earth. Just to be sure, Eiji checked with Chekov.

"Chekov, what are the characteristics of the moon? Continents, oceans and the like."

"The moon has four continents. Land area is vast for a water dominant planet such as this. Land covers 46% of total surface area with water covering the rest-Warning! Detecting unknown signal of significant strength from the west coast of the biggest continent. Transmissions not detected earlier due to strong ionosphere activity."

"Unknown signals? Do they resemble any of our Covenant samples? Is it human, like the Innies?"

"No commander. This signal is of a type not matching the Covenants. It has never been documented and does not match known human signals to date. It could be made by an Insurrectionist outpost. They cobble together transmission equipment all the time."

Eiji furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't sign on to solve mysteries. He'd deal with the signal later. Right now his main concern was getting the destroyer partly ship-shape. To that end he tapped out a few orders on his tablet and sent it to engineering. He authorised 72 hours of EVA for the diagnostics. Hopefully in that time, a Covenant fleet wouldn't jump down his throat. The actual repair would of course, take much longer. The onboard fabricators could only make so many spares. He estimated they'd be floating around for at least a couple of weeks, just to get the M.A.C cannons sorted. Half the capacitors were blown and control subsystems for the #1 M.A.C were glitchy as hell. He wondered what he would put in his AAR. 'Got ass kicked, gave names' seemed like a good header. He had fine people under his command. They just had shit enemies.

He knew he was wasting time ruminating on the ship. He had a far more unpleasant duty to undertake. Meeting with the Marines CO. He knew the most damage taken by the ship had been where the marines had billeted. He got the preliminary casualty report, which was bad. Now to see what the butcher's bill was.

* * *

Taking the elevator to the mid decks, Commander Rodriguez reviewed what he knew about the CO of the marines. His name was Captain Jake Chapman. He was one of the last off Reach before the covvies stomped it to hell. He shared command of Charlie Company with First Lieutenant Barney Tosco before he got a field promotion for bravery. He set up a trap for a platoon of Covenant to cover his company's retreat. He led the Covenant into a gulch with a mongoose and called a strafing run on himself. The strafing run worked, and he miraculously survived. His was the spirit that had frustrated the Covenant for two and a half decades. He could already hear the cries and moans of the wounded as he approached the Marine billets. It sounded like a symphony composed by demons. He palmed open the door and walked through.

"Captain on deck! Ten-hut!" A voice roared from amoung the throng of soldiers.

"At ease soldiers. I need to speak with your captain." Rodriquez said.

"Sir, I'll be with you in a moment." A voice called from his right. Turning he saw the captain kneeling with the military chaplain beside the bedroll of a horribly burnt man.

"…gustum et locutionem, tactum, gressum deliquisti…" The chaplain murmured. With his hand on the soldiers head "Amen…" he ended.

The captain stood up spoke to the chaplain and then walked towards Commander Rodriquez. The man's face was lined with weariness. Although he was only thirty, he looked ten years older.

Captain Chapman said "Cpl Cayapo is close. But then quite a few are."

Rodriquez raised his eyebrow. "Can you give me a run down?"

"Yea sure. We had a company strength of 170 when we got aboard. Mostly a mix n match of Alpha through Delta companies. That last hit outright killed 33 men. Critical casualties are 17 men. 25 men have severe bone breaks and the rest have minor fractures and bruises, including me. But enough rest and bio foam should go a long way."

"You have 95 effectives. That should be enough."

Chapman looked up sharply at this.

"Sir, what do you mean? Are we expecting trouble?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Half an hour ago, Chukov detected an unknown signal being emitted from the moon we're holding station above. And before you ask, no, it's not Covenant or our own. So here what I want you to do: set up a base near to where the signal is originating, scout around and find what's causing it." Rodriguez ordered.

Chapman had no problem with the orders. They were concise and to the point. However he did have a question. A somewhat absurd one.

"Sir what if we encounter sentient life? What do we do then?"

"Do not engage. There's a reason for that, if it's Covenant they may have a way to contact reinforcements. Lord knows there might be a fleet on its way already, and the company is already severely under strength. No need for unnecessary death. So err on the side of caution. Prepare for deployment in three hours."

"Sir is that all? I'll need to brief my men."

"Dismissed Cpt." Having finished with what he came to do, Rodriguez left Chapman to his men. Now time to compile the logs together. Unknown to him his orders would change the lives of everybody aboard the _Torn Asunder_.

* * *

Secured in his ward room, Eiji took a look at the rest of the logs. He picked up a data pad and re-read the report he closed earlier. It seemed that they had perishables for a year and a half. Picking up the report from Logistics, he was reminded of what made his ship so special. It resembled a standard destroyer in shape. But that was the limit of the similarities. The difference lay in size. Both in length and width as well as capacity, in order to support its mission profile The _Torn Asunder_ was a full 40 m longer at 520m and 230m width. Its depth was a 150m due to its cargo hold. And that was the most important difference. Most destroyers were so heavily laden there was no space to put a cargo hold without sacrificing armour or weapons. His ship managed to reconciliate both. Perusing the document he noted the inventory of the cargo hold. By no means did it rival the capacity of even a light frigate, but it had space to spare. It held two YSS-100 Sabres, two D77-TC Pelican dropships with an attached troop bay, two scorpion tanks and seven M12 LRV Warthogs, two of which were the Gauss variant.

It was quite impressive they had managed to fit all of that on a destroyer. It was a change in military doctrine. He wondered whether this late in the war, it would make any difference.

Looking at his clock, Eiji was reminded of the op that was to take place soon. Sighing he entered a few more words into his report and saved it. Five minutes later he was at the cargo bay.

Speaking to the gathered troops he said "Mission is a go. Godspeed. Marines watch your backs down there. We don't know what we're up against and I want you all back in one piece." He watched as the Pelicans loaded with troops swung out of the ship gracefully and headed down towards the moon. Only time would tell what was going on. But hopefully those men would bring a few answers back.

Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway.

John Wayne


	2. Camping Marine Style!

Chapter 2: Camping Marine Style!

The marines have landed and the situation is well in hand.

-Richard Harding Davis

Part 1

1500 hrs, September 6 2552

As the Pelican rocked about due to the turbulence the atmosphere created, Captain Chapman was slowly locking away his emotions. He was renowned amoung his troops for that special skill. He took, anger, grief, fear and buried it at the back of his mind leaving only cold rationality and a slight sense of curiousity. The mission seemed straight enough and he believed in his men's capability to pull of the op in fine style. However, the signal plagued his thoughts. Just what kind for reception would they get down there? Would it be deserted or would they be putting boots in hell?

"Starbuck to all: ETA in 5 minutes. Better prep your gear boys." The pilot said over the PA.

Checking over his equipment took little time. He did it with the mindlessness functionality of hard training and years of experience. While he did so, he kept an eye on his men who were to his relief joking and ribbing each other. It gave him a lot of information regarding their mental state. Right now it told him that his men were ready for action and that they were not dwelling on Reach nor their fallen comrades. In short, they had their heads in the game and wouldn't flip out. His men were relatively green. They picked some of them up from the training grounds on their retreat.

He turned to his senior NCO SSgt Vasily Markova "We need to get the perimeter secured before we land the rest of the troops."

"Yes Sir. My boys know what to do" the grizzled man replied.

As the pelican landed, the troops were already exiting and headed to pre-planned points around the LZ. They moved like an oiled machine, with the bellows of Markova to chivvy them along. "Section Three move out on recon. I _don't_ want any nasty surprises."

* * *

Walking slowly the men kept their fingers on their triggers and their ears open, as they moved through a forested clearing. They'd been together since the battle for Sigma Octanus IV. "You ever wonder what happens to the covvies when they die? Do they get 72 virgins? Or is it just a nightmare of naked moaning grunts?" vocalised Private Michael Chan.

"Ahh shit Mickey! We do not need that kinda imagery. Why are you so messed up man?" yelled Pvt Willis Nunez

"Just makin a little bit of conversation. This place is too quiet. I don't like it."

"Don't like it marine? Doesn't matter; keep your gob shut and your eyes open. The Corp doesn't pay us by the hour." Corporal Locklear growled.

But Mickey was correct. It was far too quiet. He'd been on worlds all over the place and the defining thing in all of them was: in the most deserted of places, especially forested areas; there were birds. It didn't matter what they looked or sounded like. There was constant noise, a soundtrack to the planet's pulse. On this one, there was nothing. Only the sound of the leaves as wind moved through. It was pretty eerie, and made him more nervous than he had any right to be. He gripped his MA5C a little more tightly. This place resembled a description SSgt Markova had of planets that'd been glassed. It wasn't a nice thought.

"Men hold up! We've been walking for the last one hour. We'll take a five minute break." Cpl Locklear said.

"Thank God! I've needed to pee since we came in system. If we had walked any longer, I'd have pissed myself!" exclaimed Mickey. He was hopping on one foot.

"Aww, itty bitty baby Mickey forget to go to the bathroom?" teased Pvt Razak Oldoma.

Mickey headed for a large rock of to their right. "Any chance that signal could be Covenant?" asked Nunez.

"Nah, don't see how so. Cap said it wasn't Covenant. And you know Chukov is rarely wrong stuff like this. I believe him." Locklear opened up his canteen and took a sip.

"Dunno man. Chukov could be rampant. I don't quite trust A.I's. I think we give the glorified memory sticks too much power. Could be trying to get us off the ship then leave." Nunez said.

Oldoma gave his two credits, "Wanna know what I think? I think one day, you're gonna suck a heckuva lot more than you do now."

"Piss off man!"

Just then the radio sprang to life "…get…this…amazing…huge…" came the sound of Mickey's voice. Locklear readjusted his earpiece and said "Mickey say it again! I can't hear you, you're not clear!"

"I said you guys should get over here. There a huge structure. Size of the bloody pyramids!" looking at his canteen, Locklear shrugged.

"Guess our break's over huh?"

Jogging to the rock they found a tunnel behind it. They went through, hugging the curves and checking their corners. It came out onto a hill. Looking up they could see Mickey waving wildly at them. They trotted up and as they came over the top, a huge valley appeared before them. Right in the middle of it, was a gigantic metallic structure. It was angular and definitely not human. More amazingly, there were big shards of the same metallic nature of the structure floating above it, invisible of any means of support. Locklear was dumbstruck. In all the years he'd been in the marines, he'd seen some weird shit, but nothing like this. So weird was it, he gave the call for back up.

* * *

1625

Marine camp

"_Roughly a kilometre in height discounting the floating things, maybe four hundred metres in width. Don't know how long it is sir, I'd have to go down to check_." Captain Jake Chapman frowned. He was in the just setup command tent. This really took the cake. For a second he wondered whether the squad was drunk off their ass. Next, he thought about the strange fact they hadn't seen it coming down. Something that big, they should have been able to see it from orbit. But that wasn't the case. Well first things first.

"Corporal I'm sending another two squads plus the remainder of yours. Lock that hill side down tight. A building means somebody built it. Somebody who might be home."

"_Roger that, sir_." Locklear replied.

Chapman glared over at his 2IC First Lieutenant Barney Tosco. Barney wasn't fazed. He knew what the captain got like when faced with a difficult problem.

"Barney, head over there and take command. Take a 'Hog with you. You might need the extra firepower. Don't enter the structure till I tell you to. I'm asking the Commander for further orders. Its likely those men just found the origins of that signal." Chapman said.

Tosco wrinkled his face as if tasting something unpleasant. "The Commander won't know what to do. We should just leave a platoon here and send everyone over there. If it is like you say, the origins of the signal, babysitting it won't help us find out who sent it."

Chapman's glare intensified, "No. That's a bad idea. We still don't know what we're up against. If we leave limited manpower at the only LZ for miles around, how do we evac if our camp gets bushwhacked? Call me paranoid, all right. I'll wait for further orders, you go babysit."

Tosco nodded in acquiescence. He said "Ok. If that's what you want." He walked out of the tent.

Alone except for the command staff, Jake looked at the radio, wishing the structure didn't exist.

* * *

1630

High above them the _Torn Asunder _hung in low orbit. Eiji was looking over the tactical holomap in the middle of the bridge. Noting that the marines had finished with their camp and that the last of supplies had been ferried he switched it off. His repair team had fixed intra-ship communications and managed to meld on a half metre of armour in the time they'd been out. They were also working on opening up the Archer tubes. Not only that, the repairs on the #2 M.A.C was going along at a decent pace. They had replaced 2 capacitors and the gun maxed out at seventy percent charge. No luck on the #1 M.A.C. They still hadn't managed to figure out what was the problem.

Eiji was a little worried. While the destroyer had more efficient capacitors than frigates, having only one operable M.A.C cannon was a serious reduction in the ships offensive capability. While ruminating on the problem he stopped. Turning slowly to his XO he said "Do we still have those upgrades in the cargo hold? The twin-linked Gauss turrets we picked up during our last refit?"

"The Covenant arrived the day before they were scheduled to be fitted out. We never had the chance to dry dock after that, so they should be there." Wallace replied.

"Good. Damned good. Those turrets can improve our point defence by a significant margin. Get the repair crew to concentrate on getting them online."

At that moment, Lieutenant Kory walked up to them from her station.

"Sir, transmission from Captain Chapman. He says he's spotted something."

"Patch it through to the holotank."

Slowly the image of Chapman resolved itself. Fieldwork seemed to have done some good to him. He no longer looked as wearied as he did on the ship. Wariness seemed to have taken its place on his face. He looked somewhat constipated. To Eiji, he had the look of a man with news he wasn't sure would be well received. That wouldn't do at all.

"Ease up Captain. Whatever it is you have to say, know this: I don't shoot the messenger."

Chapman loosened up and grinned slightly. "While I'm sure I'm not important enough to waste a M.A.C round on sir, you're not going to like the news. My recon team stumbled on an alien structure roughly 2 klicks from where the base is. It seems to be about the place Chukov detected that signal. Based on images they sent back, it's big sir. Really big. The problem is we didn't see this place coming in. It's like its invisible from orbit sir."

Not visible from orbit? What. The. Hell. Effing mysteries kept piling up. No wonder senior officers went grey before their time. Eiji wondered what Admiral Hood had seen, that man was bald. Not only that, the man looked like a Brute.

"Captain hold off your men from entering the structure. For now just keep a watch on it while I get more information. Have the men back before nightfall. That is around 1930."

"Will do sir. I'll keep you updated on the situation."

"Ok. Have your Pelican do a recon flypast."

"Yes sir." Chapman's figure disappeared.

"What do you think Chukov, time to wake up our mysterious luggage?"

"I think so Commander. This is right up his alley." Chukov said.

"Then do it."

* * *

Part 2

1715

Bridge of the _Torn Asunder_

As the bridge doors hissed open, a man in a white coat walked in. He was tall with dark complexion, a beard and beetle black eyes hidden behind wireframe spectacles. There was nothing special about the man. You could pass him on a street and forget his face in the next moment. However it would be wrong to dismiss him as nothing important.

His name was Doctor Ariel ben Hagai and he was one of the rising stars of ONI's xeno anthropology department. He also was a protégé of Doctor Ellen Anders. Brilliant with unbound enthusiasm coupled with an unhealthy disrespect for personal safety, Doctor Ariel was a bane to military commanders.

"Ah doctor, how are you? Sleep ok?" Eiji asked.

"Fabulously well. I'm not sub-atomized particles so I'm particularly happy! Obviously you need me for something, how can I help? What can I help with?"

"Slow down Doctor. News first. We exited slipspace near an undocumented moon. I've troops there right now and they say there is a structure there. Captain Chapman sent images .That's not the important bit." Keeping it concise, Eiji relayed what Chapman had told him. Doctor Ariel was quiet. He was staring at the alien building with an unknown intensity.

"Commander, I'll be frank. I think the Covenant will be here soon, if they're not here already. Structures like this were found on Harvest, Arcadia and Sigma Octanus IV. We might see a significant fleet over here if they managed to figure out where we were headed after the battle."

"Of what interest are the structures to the Covenant?" Eiji asked.

The doctor fiddled with his lab coat buttons. "We've managed to gather that the Covenant see them as the equivalent of our ancient pilgrimage sites. They worship the creators of these structures. They call them Holy Relics."

Doctor Ariel straightened his back looking intently at the Commander.

"I'm going to head down there. This is the reason ONI had me join your ship. With the Spirit of Fire discovering something similar, and the instances throughout the colonies, we've been studying. And it's about time I saw a live example."

"Ok Doctor no arguments from me. I'll send you down with the next shuttle."

"Oh and I need Chukov." Doctor Ariel said.

"What! No way in hell-"

"Commander, these objects often have complicated security protocols, Chukov can help bypass them. Also, he can do some data mining. We need more information. Maybe if we understand more about this ancient race and their history, we can end this war." The man was clearly not going to back down.

"Alright doctor. I can accept it even if I don't like it. Get down there."

"Before you go Chukov, activate our fighters for CAP duties. If covvies are around, they'll do more good outside than in."

Like a counterpoint to his words, the proximity alarms blared out as a Covenant light corvette slid out of Slipspace on their starboard and launched fighters.

Expect problems and eat them for breakfast

-Alfred A Montapert

**A/N: I'd be grateful if you leave a review.**


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